Quality of meat in purebred pigs involved in crossbreeding schemes. II. Fatty acid composition of m. Longissimus thoracis

Teodora Popova, Jivko Nakev, Jose Manuel Lorenzo Rodriguez

Abstract: The study was aiming to compare the fatty acid composition of m. Longissimus thoracis (m. LT) in four pig breeds – Landrace, Pietrain, Large White and Duroc, as well as some related indices characterizing the nutritional quality of the meat. The differences in the examined traits were assessed by one way ANOVA. Duroc pigs displayed the highest content of C14:0 and C18:1n-9 in m. LT, while the levels of these fatty acids were the lowest in Pietrain and Large White, which was accompanied also by the lowest levels of intramuscular lipids in these two breeds. Furthermore, the content of C18:0 was higher in Large White and Landrace, when compared to Duroc and Pietrain. Despite the highest amounts of C18:1n-9 and respectively the total monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in m. LT of Duroc pigs, the animals of this breed displayed the lowest contents of both individual and total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). This was visible especially in comparison with the fatty acid profile of the Large White pigs exhibiting the higher contents of PUFA in the Longissimus muscle. The ratio n-6/n-3 had the highest values in the meat of Landrace pigs, while the lowest in Duroc, however, in regard to the ratio between polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acids (P/S), the most favorable values were found in Pietrain and Large White pigs. The lipid content was strongly related with the fatty acid profile of the muscle showing highly significant positive correlation with the MUFA content (r = 0.735, P < 0.001) and negative (r = -0.734, P < 0.001) with the PUFA.

Keywords: breed; fatty acids; pork; total lipids

Date published: 2021-02-17